Lepidodendron fossil uncovered on the Ferry beach....
17th
April 2016 (Sunday)....
10.00 It’s a nice morning, even though
it is overcast and cold; ‘nice’ = blue
bits appearing through the grey! I had
a long, and
deep, sleep last night and woke up, albeit late, feeling perky....
full of ‘vivaciousness’ this morning!
There’s a brisk WNW wind, which
is adding to the chill factor, so it will be a well wrapped up ‘me’ that hits
the beach in a wee while. I’m thinking, .. the temperature might take ‘the
edge’ orf the ‘vivaciousness’.
 |
| Chapel Green, Earlsferry |
21.30 It didn’t .... the temperature didn’t take
the edge orf my ‘vivaciousness’; I’ve
been feeling fresh, frisky, with a touch of skittishness, all day: even though it has been cauld, and windy. In the afternoon it was so windy that the
washing I hung out at 14.00 was dry by 17.30.
We
had coffee in the Kirk at Kinneuchar (Kilconquhar) this afternoon, and that was
a really pleasant break, chatting to my friends from Colinsburgh, Kilconquhar
and Elie. It was when I came out of the Kirk
that I noticed the wind had risen, so much so, that I
was worried about the
sheet I’d left on the line, still being threw hem I got back to Ivy. It was.
 |
| Lepidodendron fossil |
A
few weeks ago Ron and Eleanor (Black) were telling me about a fossil ‘tree’
they had found along at the West end of
the Ferry beach. Our beach sand comes
and goes quite dramatically at times;
this time it had ‘gone’, exposing new rocks and this 335 million year old fossil from the
Carboniferous Period. Today I met Myra
on the beach, the fossil is immediately down from Glover’s Wynd, Earlsferry, and
she, Myra, took me to the very spot.
Myra, who did an Geology Course
at St Andrews knew immediately what it was when she first saw it: it’s a Lepidodendron fossil, which, 335
million years ago, were as common in this area, as dandelions in Ivy garden are
today; and that’s very common
indeed. Lepidodendrons were,
primitive, vascular (sooks up water), arborescent plants (looks like a tree but
isnae), that grew up to 100 feet tall, like telephone poles, for ten to fifteen
years, then formed two branches (bifurcating) at
the top, seeded spores, then ‘popped
their clogs’, and; 334,999,207, or so, millions of years later we dug them up as coal; or find them fossilized on the beaches of Fife. Now what else have I done today? Not much .... but what I have down has
been interesting.
 |
| Close up of fossil |
The
weather forecast for tomorrow is ‘good’ .... more or less typical of this time
of year; windy with cotton wool shower
clouds.
Photographs
: Top – this morning, Middle – the Lepidodendron fossil discovered by Eleanor and Ron, and Bottom – close up of the aforementioned fossil.
